AWNP RaDio Tribute to Hugh Masekela

According to Hotep Idris Galeta, the famed south African jazz-musician and educator, in his article, "The Development of Jazz in South Africa", he wrote that "South African Jazz has had many elements contributing to its evolution and development. The most prominent and significant being the rich eclectic cultural diversity of the country’s inhabitants and the influence of African/American musical culture upon it over the years. These two variants coupled with an environment of legislated racism, gross human rights violations, created the unique artistic forge and mold responsible for the evolution of South African Jazz. The first informal contact the inhabitants of Cape Town had with African Americans was during the American Civil War, when the Confederate warship the “Alabama” came into the port of Cape Town in 1862 to replenish its supplies. The “Alabama” patrolled the South Atlantic where it would lie in wait for Union Ships to come around the Cape from the Far East on its way to the east coast ports of Philadelphia, New York, New Port and Boston. It would then attack, plunder and sink them. The “Alabama” was one of the most notorious and feared Southern commerce raiders on patrol in the South Atlantic sending some fifty-eight Union vessels to the bottom of the ocean during her two year patrol. The Alabama was finally tracked down and sunk off the coast of France by a Union Warship on the 19th of June 1864. On June 19th 1890 South Africans had their first formal contact with black-Americans and Black-American music when the “Virginia Jubilee Singers” from Hampton Virginia presented a series of concerts in Cape Town. Orpheus McAdoo was born in 1858 in Greensborough, North Carolina. As a young man he attended the Hampton Institute in Hampton Virginia, where he studied and graduated as a teacher in 1876. Before turning to music as a professional career in 1886 he taught school in Pulaski and Accomac Counties in the state of Virginia for ten years. In 1886 he toured Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East after joining five members of the original Fisk Jubilee singers. Upon his return to the U.S. a year or two later McAdoo formed his own company by recruiting some ex students and graduates from Hampton amongst who were his future wife Mattie Allen and his brother Eugene. South Africa has deep and clearly identifiable connections to the African diaspora, particularly in the experiences of people of African descent who live in the U.S. What we will hear next is Africa World Now Project’s tribute to Hugh Masekela who transition to the ancestral realm on January 23 2018, through a collage of music, a 2012 Ted-talk by Hugh Masekela himself, 2014 interview with AWNP’s Mwiza Munthali, and reflections from various people who live in Southern African—specifically Malawi where Mwiza Munthali is currently on the ground… Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native, indigenous, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; and Ghana; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Music: J Dilla-African Rhythms Hugh Maskela-Herb Alpert & Hugh Masekela - Foreign Natives Hugh Masekela - Night in Tunisia Hugh Masekela - The Big Apple HUGH MASEKELA Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song) Hugh Masekela- If Theres Anybody Out There